Scheduled for release at the end of the month, will the Core Ultra 9 285K - and its smaller Arrow Lake brothers - be Intel's saving grace?
In dire straits for many months (years?) now, Intel has been under scrutiny by all observers since the start of the year, as the situation has become so worrying. Of course, the American firm remains a colossus in the industry, but one with feet of clay that seems to be encountering major difficulties, particularly with regard to chip production. It's no coincidence that the company's next generation of desktop processors (Arrow Lake) will actually be manufactured by TSMC. The Taiwanese company will engrave the cores, which Intel will then assemble in its own facilities.
All indications are that these Arrow Lake chips will be available from October 24, at least for the first wave. As usual, Intel will indeed launch three processors first - the Core Ultra 9 285K, Core Ultra 7 265K and Core Ultra 5 245K - with the rest of the range expected a little later, probably in the first quarter of next year. So, from October 24, we should know more about the actual performance of these chips, which are as promising as they are important for Intel's future health.
https://x.com/PassMarkInc/status/1842690224457179239
PassMark seems to have already had its hands on one of these Arrow Lakes, the Core Ultra 9 285K. The most powerful of the new range is designed around 24 cores (8 high-performance cores and 16 efficient cores), with no mention of hyperthreading. The maximum operating frequency is 5.7 GHz in boost mode, which represents a step backwards compared with previous generations. And yet, Intel was claiming progress in the power of its chip. Progress that PassMark has now confirmed, at least in terms of single-threaded performance.
© PassMark
Here, as you can see a little above, there's not even a match. The Core Ultra 9 285K's single-core performance is simply outstanding, and with 5,268 points, it clearly outstrips all its rivals. The previous best performer was the Core i9-14900KS, but the newcomer outperforms it by 8% all the same! Unfortunately for Intel, the disappearance of hyperthreading seems to have had an impact and, in multi-core, the Core Ultra 9 285K is less at ease: with 46,872 points, it is clearly outstripped by the same Core i9-14900KS and its 62,510 points. Single-core is still interesting in many cases, and you can't always take advantage of all the cores on a chip, but the game is not yet up for Intel.
